NFS: The Desert Mountains
by Malevolent Procrastination
Summary: A contracting team has been hired by a local city to help crack down on the local street racing. Soon, the stakes are raised, and it becomes obvious that there is something much bigger going on behind the scenes. NFS The Run style story, OC and Original Story.


El Paso, like many other cities, had it's fair share of "tuners"; teens and young men in their early twenties who modified their Honda Civics and Acura Integras with huge exhaust tips, low profile tires, and lowered suspensions. They were loud, brash, and not fast in the slightest, exchanging racing looks and sound for actual performance. The culture at the time emphasized being highly conspicuous, with lots of engine noise, loud stereos, bright colors, and significant body modifications to make the cars stand out.

Street racing was also common, with many people racing for the sake of competing to see who's ill-built car was fastest. There were accidents of course, but with so few reaching truly dangerous speeds, it was more a financial set back to those involved than an actual issue, with only those accidents involving and injuring bystanders being truly serious.

Most racers were arrested, and charged with minor speeding tickets, because even at their best, they struggled to break the speed limits, and were easily apprehended by the much faster, more powerful Ford Crown Victorias, and new Mustang GT Interceptors the police had available. The issue remained a minor nuisance, much like other cities.

* * *

Until one man came around. As a profession, he was a high level car technician, working on top of the line BMWs, Mercedes, and Audis, occasionally being contracted out to work on the local CEO's Ferrari, Lamborghini, or Porsche. Rather than just standard maintenance, he was hired to modify and upgrade these cars to beyond supercar levels. He knew cars extremely well and knew how to gain the most performance out of anything he laid his hands on. Forgoing the giant muffler tips, lowered suspension, and other ill thought out modifications, he built his own racing Civic as part of his hobby. Semi-professional circuit track racing.

One day, on a drunken lark, he decided to race these teens and their botch job cars. He made his pitch, having shown off his car in the parking lot before the race, as was tradition, and was almost laughed out of the group. Until the race. He demolished all the racers, completely out of their league. He finished the half mile circuit before most of the other racers had even reached the half way point. He sat at the starting line, waiting for the rest when the inevitable happened. Someone had called the police, and reported the illegal street race. A squad of cars arrived to break up the race, and as usual, everyone ran. This man however, did something few could. He outran them, and he got away.

Thinking this would be a routine race, no chase helicopter was deployed, and the man was able to lose sight of the police before it could be scrambled. The loss caused a shift in focus with the police, who tried to track him down, and so all the other racers were able to take advantage and made their own escapes. The car he was using had no license plate, and no way of tracking down the owner. Not being street legal, they had no way of knowing who had even been driving it.

* * *

This sparked a change in the racing and tuning culture. Having seen first hand the worth of a car modified not for looks and sound, but for actual performance, they changed their priorities, and soon, these racers and tuners had reached a new level of performance. Not full professional level, but certainly much faster than ever before. With time, and experience, cars became faster, more powerful, and more agile. And the police began to notice.

Before, the vast majority of racers were apprehended, with the few that got away only doing so because all the pursuing police had already made a capture. But now it was the other way around, with the only ones being captured either failing in their skills as drivers, or because they were still outclassed. Accident rates soared, and deaths began to increase. And still, the cars became faster, with the survivors and escapees being the ones who had the talent to both drive and modify their cars efficiently and with skill.

* * *

Soon, a new era emerged. The best joined together into crews, who focused on one brand or another, and because the pool of experience and knowledge grew with them, the crews soon became even more dangerous than the individual racers from before. With crews gaining a reputation amongst each other for who could evade the police easiest and who could win races, the competition became even more fierce. And police were left even further behind.

City policy makers and the Chief of Police were placed in an awkward position. It was obvious that the racing would have to stop. Too many lives were being lost and the population was getting restless. However, the police were proving they couldn't keep up. The racers outran them in the neighborhoods, the mountain paths, and even the highways. The police needed a larger budget for better cars. But with so few arrests, they weren't making as much from fees and tickets as before, and couldn't justify the budget increase, as it would bankrupt the city.

* * *

Luckily for them, a mid size military contracting company in the city that serviced the base in the city had been following the action since the beginning. And with an uncanny foresight the company had started up a new program. They had taken a few of their employees, former military members who specialized in security work, but had a hobby with high level cars, and set them to work building their own fleet of Interceptor units. With a massive budget, far larger than any crew hoped to have, they built a fleet of four cars, who ran in two car teams. Top of the line BMWs and Audis were modified and upgraded until they rivaled even those used in the Le Mans and GT races. They outclassed anything the crews could run. And with this new equipment, made an offer to the city.

A contract to run high speed interceptors for the city. They had the capability, and equipment, with the same radio and GPS systems the local police fielded, and thus were compatible with their infrastructure. They would be on call 24/7 to break up and bring to an end any race that the local police couldn't handle. And the city loved it. The price was lower than the budget increase, and only based it fees on each time they were deployed, for a flat fee. The Police Chief loved it because it allowed his officers to focus on other tasks, and even made it easier to stay within their own budget, as it saved on repairs and fuel expenditures.

* * *

And so, two years after the mysterious man outran the police, Precision Industries Defense signed the contract, and two weeks later Jake Wilson, Callsign Galm One, and Brian Forrest, Callsign Galm Two, were deployed on their first mission.


End file.
